


Homestead

by Skylark



Series: HSWC 2013 [19]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - Historical, Animal Death, Australia, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-01
Updated: 2013-07-01
Packaged: 2018-01-08 23:26:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 861
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1138714
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skylark/pseuds/Skylark
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><a href="http://hs-worldcup.dreamwidth.org/5337.html?thread=1899225#cmt1899225">Prompt:</a> "1932, Emu War. Australia."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Homestead

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Bananly](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bananly/gifts).



> [The Emu War](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emu_War) is just as incredible as it sounds.

“Pleasure to meet you, ma'am,” you say nervously, tipping your cap. “The name's Jake English.”  
  
Her eyes narrow, and her arms are folded. The scenery around her is dusty, baked dry, and she seems as hard and unyielding as the land she farms. “We barely have enough to go around as it is.”  
  
“We're not sightseers!” you tell her. “We'll earn our keep. After all, we've got a job to do.”  
  
“I'll believe that when I see it,” she says.  
  
“I'll bring my first emu back for you,” you promise. “As a token of our appreciation and esteem. They're very good eating, you know.”  
  
“I know,” she says, and her eyes shade towards amused, though the rest of her expression doesn't change. “I've hunted them myself. There are just too many for me to take down alone right now. Anyway, you can use the barn—just don't spook the animals, and if you steal anything I'll find out about it. You won't like me when I'm angry! Don't try anything, mister.”  
  
“Of course not,” you say. “Er, I didn't catch your name—”  
  
“I'm Jade Harley,” she says, and the smile she gives you makes your back snap straight.  
  
“Have a good evening, miss Harley, ma'am,” you say.  
  
“Bec will check on you later,” she tells you.  
  
\--  
  
Bec is a huge white dog easily as high as your hip. He wakes you in the night by licking your face and your heart nearly stops from fright; but within a few minutes the two of you are a happy puddle of fur and limbs on the floor. You're laughing fit to wake up the other members of your platoon, who curse and throw things at you until the two of you take it outside.  
  
You sit under the endless stars with a hand resting on Bec's back, listening to his happy panting, and you miss home so much it hurts.  
  
\--  
  
When you leave the next morning, Bec follows you to the fence and whines after you. Jade raises her eyebrows, and you give a slight laugh.  
  
“I've got a dog just like him back home,” you say. “His name's Halley.”  
  
Jade gives you a long look. “It's hard to find a dog like Bec,” she says.  
  
“That's what I thought about Halley, too.”  
  
“Come on, Jake,” someone calls to you. Jade gives a sharp whistle, and instantly Bec turns from you and trots back to her side.  
  
“Have a good day, ma'am,” you say.  
  
“It's Jade,” she says, before turning to go.  
  
\--  
  
You come back with an emu slung over each shoulder, one for you, one for her. Bec growls at it as you drop it on the dusty ground at her feet.  
  
“I promised you, didn't I?” you say with a grin, still high on the thrill of the chase and the lingering memory of the way your guns feel in your hands.  
  
“You did!” she said. “I just didn't expect you to follow through.” She lifts the carcass like it's a sack of feathers. You whistle, impressed, and then your cheeks color.  
  
“I'm sorry, that's terribly rude to—I didn't mean—”  
  
She laughs at you. “Don't be such a stick in the mud,” she says. “I bet I know a joke or two that would make even a hardened soldier like you blush. Not that making you blush seems hard,” she adds as an afterthought, and you scratch at the back of your neck and give an awkward, hiccuping cough.  
  
You follow her around to the back of the house, where she starts to strip the feathers off the carcass. “Tell me about Halley,” she tells you, and you do.  
  
\--  
  
Miss Jade—just Jade, you remind yourself—lives with her little brother John and two farmhands they took in along the way, Dave and Rose. “I've been looking out for John since almost as long as I can remember,” she tells you. “I thought it'd be better for the two of us out here, but the government gave us a bad deal, and I won't stand for it! If they're going to go back on their word, then we'll just go back on ours and keep all the wheat for ourselves.”  
  
You nod readily, not really having a head for politics. She chuckles and pats your arm, Bec lying huge and solid beside her. You reach across her lap to give him a scratch on the head, and she doesn't say anything.  
  
“Say, Jade,” you say, “Frontier life must be awfully exciting.”  
  
“It can be,” she says, “Though mostly it's a ton of work and not much reward.” You shake your head, and she says, “You don't believe me? You should try it yourself.”  
  
“Maybe I will, after this deployment,” you say distantly.  
  
She gives you a look. “Well,” she says. “We could always use another hand around here.”  
  
“I thought you barely had enough to go around as it was,” you say.  
  
Jade gives you a sly grin. “But you earn your keep, don't you?”  
  
\--  
  
“I'll come back,” you tell her.  
  
“I'll leave the light on for you,” she says with a smile that hits you right in the heart.


End file.
